Apple is thinking outside the box (Tayfun Coskun/Getty Images)
One of these companies is not like the others.
If you’ve been following the Big Tech companies’ earnings reports, you know that they’re pouring more than ever into capital expenditure to pursue their AI futures.
Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft all spent record sums last quarter on purchases of property and equipment — largely tied AI chips and data centers. And for the companies that offered forward-looking guidance, their capex plans for the year blew analysts’ already generous estimates out of the water.
Amazon expects its 2026 capex to surge to $200 billion. Google is aiming for $175 billion to $185 billion. Meta estimates it will spend between $115 billion and $135 billion. All of those figures came in well above expectations and, for the most part, have weighed on their stocks. Microsoft didn’t give a formal 2026 capex outlook, but if its peers are any indication, spending will likely exceed the roughly $114 billion Wall Street expects for the calendar year.
Of the Big Tech companies, just one stands apart this earnings season. Apple’s capital expenditure, already just a fraction of its peers, actually declined in the December quarter from a year earlier.
For better or worse, Apple has struck its own path with AI. As we’ve argued before, it’s embracing AI but is not an AI company. Instead, it’s chosen a hybrid model, relying on both first- and third-party data centers — a move that keeps a significant amount of infrastructure spending off its balance sheet. And while Apple has said it expects capex to increase as it invests more heavily in AI, particularly to support its Private Cloud Compute, those outlays remain minimal compared with its peers.
You can see that approach reflected in Apple’s decision to use Google’s Gemini, rather than an in-house model, to power the next generation of Siri and Apple Intelligence.
The Google deal, reportedly worth about $1 billion a year, gives Apple access to a top-tier AI model for pennies on the dollar compared to what other Big Tech companies are spending to build their own.
Of course, it also means Apple won’t fully own a technology that some see as powering the next industrial revolution. But if that revolution fails to materialize — or takes longer than expected — Apple won’t be left holding the most expensive bag in Silicon Valley history.
Liddel is an seasoned executive who previously served as CFO for Microsoft, GM, and International Paper.
Liddel also comes with experience in government, having served as the deputy White House chief of staff during the first Trump administration.
Ties to the Trump world could be helpful for Anthropic as it pushes to enter the public market. It’s reportedly not on the greatest terms with the current administration, as the startup has pushed back on using its Claude AI for surveillance applications.
Liddel is an seasoned executive who previously served as CFO for Microsoft, GM, and International Paper.
Liddel also comes with experience in government, having served as the deputy White House chief of staff during the first Trump administration.
Ties to the Trump world could be helpful for Anthropic as it pushes to enter the public market. It’s reportedly not on the greatest terms with the current administration, as the startup has pushed back on using its Claude AI for surveillance applications.
Now, according to an internal memo reviewed by the Times, Meta seems to feel that it’s at least found the right moment, noting that the fraught and crowded political climate could allow the feature to attract less scrutiny.
“We will launch during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns,” the document reads.
The tech, called “Name Tag” internally, would let smart glass wearers identify and surface information about people they see with the glasses by using Meta’s artificial intelligence assistant.
Now, according to an internal memo reviewed by the Times, Meta seems to feel that it’s at least found the right moment, noting that the fraught and crowded political climate could allow the feature to attract less scrutiny.
“We will launch during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns,” the document reads.
The tech, called “Name Tag” internally, would let smart glass wearers identify and surface information about people they see with the glasses by using Meta’s artificial intelligence assistant.
Anthropic raises $30 billion, now valued at $380 billion
Anthropic is now valued at $380 billion, after closing on its latest round of fundraising, taking in $30 billion from a wide range of investors. The Series G round was co-led by D. E. Shaw Ventures, Dragoneer, Founders Fund, ICONIQ, and the UAE’s investment arm, MGX.
Some other investors include: Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Sequoia Capital, Fidelity Management & Research Company, JPMorgan Chase, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Microsoft, and Nvidia.
Anthropic offered a few details on the current state of its business:
Anthropic said that its annual run-rate revenue has reached $14 billion, seeing 10x growth each of the past three years.
“The number of customers spending over $100,000 annually on Claude (as represented by run-rate revenue) has grown 7x in the past year.”
“Claude Code’s run-rate revenue has grown to over $2.5 billion; this figure has more than doubled since the beginning of 2026.”
Business subscriptions to Claude Code have quadrupled since the start of 2026.
In a blog post announcing the round, the company said:
“We train and run Claude on a diversified range of AI hardware — AWS Trainium, Google TPUs, and NVIDIA GPUs — which means we can match workloads to the chips best suited for them. This diversity of platforms translates to better performance and greater resilience for the enterprise customers that depend on Claude for critical work.”
Anthropic offered a few details on the current state of its business:
Anthropic said that its annual run-rate revenue has reached $14 billion, seeing 10x growth each of the past three years.
“The number of customers spending over $100,000 annually on Claude (as represented by run-rate revenue) has grown 7x in the past year.”
“Claude Code’s run-rate revenue has grown to over $2.5 billion; this figure has more than doubled since the beginning of 2026.”
Business subscriptions to Claude Code have quadrupled since the start of 2026.
In a blog post announcing the round, the company said:
“We train and run Claude on a diversified range of AI hardware — AWS Trainium, Google TPUs, and NVIDIA GPUs — which means we can match workloads to the chips best suited for them. This diversity of platforms translates to better performance and greater resilience for the enterprise customers that depend on Claude for critical work.”
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